IHC orders action for non-compliance of 5pc women seats quota rule

ISLAMABAD   -  The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has instructed the Elec­tion Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to take action on a plea filed by the Aurat Foundation regarding the non-compliance of the allocation of a 5 percent quota for women by political parties in the general elections.

A single bench of the IHC, headed by Chief Justice Aam­er Farooq, conducted a hear­ing on a petition filed by the Aurat Foundation against the non-compliance of Sec­tion 206 of the Elections Act 2017, which pertains to the allocation of a 5 percent quo­ta for women by political par­ties in general elections. The Foundation was represent­ed by its Executive Director, Naeem Ahmed Mirza, through his counsel, Advocate Fazalull­ah Farooq.

The IHC bench returned the case related to the violation of the 5% general seat quo­ta for women by political par­ties to the Election Commis­sion of Pakistan (ECP), stating that the general elections were scheduled for Thursday (yes­terday), and could not be halt­ed. The Chief Justice direct­ed the ECP to take action on the Aurat Foundation’s com­plaint after the elections, in ac­cordance with the law, and dis­posed of the matter.

During the hearing, Justice Aamer sought an explanation from the ECP regarding the status of the 5% general seat tickets allocated by political parties and the actions taken by the ECP in cases where cer­tain political parties did not provide the required number of seats.

The ECP, through its law­yers, responded that the Aurat Foundation’s complaint and the affidavits of political par­ties were under consideration, and the ECP was in the process of evaluation. Subsequently, the bench sent the matter back to the ECP with the aforemen­tioned directions.

Naeem Ahmed Mirza, the ex­ecutive director of the Aurat Foundation, filed the petition, revealing that only PML-N and MQM-P had allocated over 5% of their party’s tickets to wom­en for 266 National Assem­bly seats, while other political parties failed to meet this re­quirement.

The petitioner stated that he had submitted an application to the ECP, urging it to act in accordance with the law and ensure that political parties observed the 5 percent wom­en quota in the award of tick­ets to their candidates. How­ever, the ECP had not taken any action on his application to date.

He cited a letter written by the Aurat Foundation to the ECP, informing the commis­sion about the failure of ma­jor political parties to award 5 percent of tickets to female candidates and demanding le­gal action against them.

According to data shared by the petitioner, in the National Assembly, several parties, in­cluding the PPP, Jamaat-e-Isla­mi (JI), Awami National Party (ANP), Tehreek Labbaik Paki­stan (TLP), JUI-F, and BNP, did not meet the requirement of allocating at least 5 percent of their tickets to women for gen­eral seats.

It added that, conversely, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) and the Pa­kistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) complied with the quota, with more than 5 per­cent of their tickets awarded to female candidates for the National Assembly.

The petition further stat­ed that in the Punjab Assem­bly, findings indicated that PML-N, PPPP, JI, MQM, and TLP did not fulfill the require­ment of allocating 5 percent of their tickets to women. No­tably, the PML-N, despite its national performance, also fell short in this regard at the provincial level.

It continued that similar trends were observed in the Sindh Assembly, Khyber Pa­khtunkhwa Assembly, and Ba­lochistan Assembly, where various parties failed to meet the 5 percent quota for female candidates on general seats. This issue underscores the on­going struggle for gender par­ity and representation within Pakistan’s political landscape.